Soundcheck Archive
June 2005
Recorded Music and its Discontents
Thursday, June 30, 2005
Has live performance become background to the recording process? First published in 1987 and now considered a classic, The Recording Angel charts the ways in which the phonograph and its descendents have transformed our culture. Today on Soundcheck, author Evan Eisenberg comes by to talk about his rhapsodic book, its legacy, and the new digital landscape. Also, pianist Marc-André Hamelin is known for his attention to lesser-known composers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, and is cited as one of the most "intrepid explorers of the pianistic universe." He joins us to talk about his ever-expanding musical vocabulary and his new recording of Albeniz's sultry "Iberia."
From Grokster to Sweet Honey
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Today, the corner of 88th Street and West End Avenue will be named "Arturo 'Chico' O'Farrill Place" in honor of the Latin jazz bandleader and composer who died in 2001. O'Farrill's son, also named Arturo O'Farrill, and leader of the Chico O'Farrill Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra, joins us to talk about this event. Also, Arik Hesseldahl, staff writer at Forbes magazine, comes by to talk about the newest Supreme Court decision on digital music copyrighting. And finally, a visit with Sweet Honey In The Rock, the Grammy Award-winning African American female a cappella ensemble with deep musical roots in gospel, blues, and jazz. They join us to discuss their new documentary "Raise Your Voice," to be shown on Wed at 9pm on the PBS series, American Masters.
Yesterday and Today
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Rolling Stone magazine ranks Richard Thompson as among the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. It also praises his songs as "schizophrenic and disturbingly catchy." Today, Thompson looks back on a career that has included forming the seminal English folk-rock ensemble Fairport Convention and recording the classic LP "Shoot Out the Lights." He also gives a live performance in the WNYC studio. For nearly four decades, blues guitarist John Hammond has put his unique stamp on the American roots music of, among others, Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. He joins us to talk about keeping the classic blues songs alive, and also offers a live performance.
Coldplay: Greatest or Most Insufferable Band?
Monday, June 27, 2005
The British band Coldplay has gone straight to the top of the Billboard 200 chart with its third album "X&Y" (EMI). Some are already calling them the World's Biggest Rock Band but others disagree, arguing that their music is middle of the road, and they are mere pretenders to U2's throne. Today: a face-off over Coldplay with New York Times music critic Jon Pareles and Newsday music critic Glenn Gamboa. We also take listener calls. Also on the show: The husband and wife Newman & Oltman guitar duo join us to share a new work by Augusta Read Thomas, titled "memory: SWELLS." The inspiration for Thomas' 10-minute work is a snippet of poetry by A.R. Ammons.
Summer Breeze
Friday, June 24, 2005
It's summer, which means the return of outdoor pops concerts. Los Angeles Times arts reporter Scott Timberg joins us to look at how pops have changed since Arthur Fielder took over the Boston Pops 75 years ago, and music included Strauss waltzes, Rossini overtures, and Wagner preludes. These days, pops can mean everything from medleys of TV themes to celebrity crooners doing music from last year's blockbuster movie. Also, a visit with Kitty Brazelton. She's a rock musician with a doctorate in composition from Columbia University, and she combines influences of medieval chant, free jazz, and punk.
Jazz Ambassadors
Thursday, June 23, 2005
Hugh Masekela has been called the "father of African jazz," and South Africa's musical ambassador to the world. He has the credentials to back it up too: he has released over 30 albums in his lifetime, played with Paul Simon on his "Graceland" tour, and his 1987 hit "Bring Him Back Home" became the anthem for Nelson Mandela's world tour following his release from prison in 1992. Hugh joins us today to talk about music and his "instrument of resistance." Also, bassist-composer Ben Allison, named as one of "the 25 rising jazz stars of the future" by Downbeat magazine, stops by to chat about the myriads projects he’s involved with and his upcoming performance at the JVC Jazz festival.
Bjork for Big Band
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
What do you get when you take music by Icelandic pop star Bjork and arrange it for an 18-piece jazz band? Find out as we visit with Travis Sullivan's Bjorkestra, a group that performs big band interpretations of the entire Bjork catalog. Similar in spirit, if not necessarily in inspiration is the Ed Palermo Big Band. That orchestra takes on the music of Frank Zappa in crafty interpretations. He joins us as well. Rounding out the hour is singer/songwriter Dar Williams. She has been a major force on the New England folk scene and we hear some of her idiosyncratic, thought-provoking songs.
Summertime, and the Music is Easy
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
It's the first day of summer and what better time to decide what music you'll be playing as you take on a road trip, head to the beach, or just momentarily escape from the everyday grind. Today, we consult the experts to find out what the hot summer CD's and songs are. On the show is Kelefa Sanneh, pop music critic of the New York Times, Justin Davidson, Pulitzer Prize-winning music critic of Newsday, George Steel, the director of Columbia's Miller Theater and the Vox Vocal Ensemble, Ann Powers, a Seattle-based rock critic at the Experience Music Project, and Mike Wolf, music editor of Time Out New York. Tune in and find out what should be in your summer music collection.
Sex, Drugs and ...Classical Music?
Monday, June 20, 2005
"Mozart in the Jungle: Sex, Drugs and Classical Music," is an inside look at the world of one young classical musician, where job offers get handed out in the bedroom, and cocaine is served at post-concert parties. On top of that, it's a critique of post-Cold War cultural policy. The book's author, Blair Tindall, walks us through the underbelly of the classical music world.
Soprano sax player and composer Jane Ira Bloom has been called "a leader with a commitment to adventure." She's pioneered the use of live electronics and movement in jazz, and her cross-disclpinary approach has earned her wide acclaim. Her newest recording is called, "Like Silver, Like Song."
The Heart of Song: Renée Fleming with Fred Hersch
Friday, June 17, 2005
Opera soprano Renée Fleming is a familiar face on the world's greatest opera stages, but on her latest CD, "Haunted Heart," she leaps to the worlds of jazz, pop, and folk. On this special edition of Soundcheck, Fleming joins pianist Fred Hersch to offer a live performance of jazz and pop standards in the studio. Included is music from Joni Mitchell’s classic 1971 "Blue" release, the standard "Love for Sale," and exclusive archival performances from Fleming’s earliest days as a young college student.
» More on The Heart of Song
Classic Rockers
Thursday, June 16, 2005
Glen Campbell and Jimmy Webb have had one of the most successful collaborations in rock and country music history. In the late 1960's, Mr. Campbell's recordings of Mr. Webb's wistful country-pop compositions, "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," "Wichita Lineman," "Galveston" and "Where's the Playground Susie" were Billboard Top 40 hits. They'll perform some of those classic songs live in the studio today. And Bill T. Jones is an award winning choreographer whose latest work combines the text of Flannery O’Connor’s short story, The Artificial Nigger with a score by young composer Daniel Bernard Roumain, to explore how racial and religious reasoning influence human relations.
The Dish from DeCurtis
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Rolling Stone contributing editor Anthony DeCurtis is the Larry King of music journalism, landing big interviews and important scoops. His new book, In Other Words: Artists Talk about Life and Work is out in bookstores later this month, and contains in-depth conversations with everyone from Johnn Cash to Woody Allen to Bono. Today, he talks about getting music's greatest legends to open up and tell their stories. Also on the show: saxophonist and bandleader Fred Anderson. At 76, he's one of the most venerated figures of the Chicago avant-garde, although he has remained out of the limelight for much of his career. Today, he joins us to share his remarkable career path and boundary-bursting music.
Brand New Heaven
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
60 minutes of Brand New Heaven.
That's how one reviewer described the voice of Mark Mulchay. A former member of the band Miracle Legion, Mulcahy has gone on to a solo career that's included everything from writing music for TV shows to music for cartoon operas. He has a new record called In Pursuit of Your Happiness and he'll be in today to perform live in the studio.
And a tribute to Gertrude Stein: A Gertrude Stein Musical Trilogy is a performance of three short American operas exploring Stein's genius and vision. In addition to two operas with texts by Stein herself— Ned Rorem's Three Sisters Who Are Not Sisters and Virgil Thomson's Capital Capitals — the Trilogy features the world premiere of Gertrude Stein Invents A Jump Early On, a new jazz-influenced opera. We'll hear from the composer and librettist.
Can You Feel it?
Monday, June 13, 2005
The four Campbell brothers play electric gospel music Known as Sacred Steel? Emphasizing the steel guitar, the plays spiritual music that rings of rock and the blues, and also draw from country, and jazz. Chuck and Phil Campbell will be live in the studio with their newest record, Can You Feel It?. And Pascal Rioult is a French born, New York-based choreographer with a richly musical ear, who turns the classics on their head. His newest pieces bring Stravinsky and Gluck into the 21st century, while revisiting the age-old struggle between good and evil.
Out of Africa
Friday, June 10, 2005
Singer and songwriter Oliver Mtukudzi is one of Zimbabwe's leading musicians, writing songs that blend socially conscious lyrics with Southern African pop styles. Today on Soundcheck, he talks about how Zimbabwe's political turmoil influences his songwriting. Also: a look ahead to this weekend's Belmont Stakes, and specifically, the tradition of the race track bugler.
How to Hold Your Own with Rock Snobs
Thursday, June 09, 2005
"The Rock Snob's Dictionary" is a new reference guide for learning the cryptic language of Rock Snobs, those obscurity-obsessed know-it-alls who love their rock music and use terms like "Seminal" and "old-school." Today, editors David Kamp and Steven Daly explain how you too can talk like a rock snob. Also: jazz critic Larry Blumenfeld stops by with a tale of two jazz festivals: George Wein's JVC Festival, which is a big, corporate-sponsored event by major stars at big halls; and the Lower East Side's Vision Festival, which is a nonprofit grassroots affair that gathers free improv and avant garde heroes for multishow nights at a downtown space. Together, they're a display of the breadth, depth, diversity and polarity of what jazz in June can mean.
Instant Classic
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
The Austin-based rock band, Spoon, has just released their newest record, Gimme Fiction, that some critics have dubbed an instant classic. Spoon forged its reputation in the '90s as an indie-rock, post-punk band cast in the same mold as The Pixies, and they've gone on to critical acclaim in the indie music scene. Their lead singer, Britt Daniel, comes by today, guitar in hand, for a live performance in the studio.
Royal Canadian
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Montreal-based rock band The Dears were named one of the "Ten Artists to Watch" by Rolling Stone last year, and it's easy to see why. The six-piece band, formed by frontman Murray Lightburn, plays ornate orchestral-rock that has drawn comparisons to the Smiths and Belle and Sebastian. They join us on the heels of their new CD, "No Cities Left." Another example of Canada's musical diversity can be found in the work of Kiran Ahluwalia. Born in northern India to Punjabi parents, she was raised in Toronto where she fell in love with ghazals, the sophisticated musical love poems of India she was exposed to by her parents. She joins us with a live performance in advance of a date at Joe's Pub this Friday.
All About Ives
Monday, June 06, 2005
In 1911, American composer Charles Ives wrote "The Universe Symphony," in which he "attempted to cast the physical universe of all humanity past, present and future, physical and spiritual, [in] a "universe of tone" [All Music Guide]. Today, we're joined by Johnny Reinhard, an experimental composer who has updated Ives' efforts, through a collaboration with Mike Thorne, a musician and record producer who has worked with everyone from Deep Purple to the Sex Pistols to Til Tuesday and Blur. We'll get a broader perspective on Ives' place in American musical history when we speak with composer Danny Felsenfeld, who has just written a new book called "Ives and Copland: A Listener's Guide." Also: A look at the winners of the 2005 Van Cliburn competition with Dallas Morning News critic Scott Cantrell.
The Death of Arts Criticism?
Friday, June 03, 2005
Is the arts critic becoming a white elephant? Los Angeles Times critic Scott Timberg explored the issue of the critic's diminishing presence and influence in a lengthy piece recently. Among the topics he explores are the growth of blogs, changes in newspaper readership, and the "Zagatization" of arts criticism. He joins us today along with Newark Star-Ledger music critic Willa Conrad to has out these and other critical issues. Also: Product placement is rampant in the movies and television and is becoming increasingly common on Broadway as well. Today, New York Times writer Stuart Elliott discusses how ad endorsements in plays and shows are blurring the line between art and commerce.
Planet Hollywood
Thursday, June 02, 2005
Singer-songwriter Aimee Mann recently released "The Forgotten Arm," a new concept album starring a washed-up boxer, and a girl from the local fair who ran away with him. Today, how Mann's own experience in the boxing ring helped shape the album's story. Also: Finnish-born conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen has presided as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic for 13 years and has built it into a virtuoso ensemble with a ultra-modern concert hall and a fresh approach to programming. He's also a composer whose works are increasingly showing the influence of his adopted LA home. And you thought "LA culture" just meant Mickey Mouse and plastic surgery?
Insurgent Country
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Singer and songwriter Robbie Fulks has spent his career tipping country music on its head, writing songs that ring of honky-tonk, roots rock and neo-traditional folk music. His newest release is called Georgia Hard and he'll perform live in our studio today. And we'll get ready for Rock Camp for Girls. More than just a "large mob of anxious girls armed with electric guitars, drum sticks and lots and lots of sparkly eye shadow," rock camp for girls gives teenage girls the chance to dip their toes onto rock and roll.
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